What are the stories about?

Dear reader

The photograph below is of the ‘Queen’s View’ across Loch Tummel towards Schiehallion (pronounced shee-hal-i-on). It was taken by a kind stranger so that my partner Julia, me and Grannie could all be in it. It was Grannie’s seventy-ninth birthday, 31st May 2008.

The three of us had a truly lovely day exploring parts of the Highlands within a day’s drive of Grannie’s home in Kirriemuir.

Grannie passed away less than four years later, in 2012. I look back at our day in the Highlands with both joy and sadness. And I know that I’ll never return to the ‘Queen’s View’. No matter how beautiful it is, it would be empty without Grannie.

How does all this relate to the stories on this blog?

By sharing what this photograph means to me, I have revealed something of myself to you. But I have probably also limited what you feel able to think about the photograph – maybe even the place itself. I have made it mine, not yours.

The stories and poems are unauthored texts. They are yours, not mine.

“To give a text an author is to impose a limit on that text” – Roland Barthes, from Death of the Author.

So basically the stories are meaningless until you – the reader – make of them what you will.

Having said all that, I have come to realise that my writing is an expression of my melancholy. The quote on the homepage refers to “the happiness of being sad” which, according to Google, is Victor Hugo’s definition of melancholy – and I like that idea.

much love and happiness
Sirius

the stories are written by me, the pictures are taken by Julia (apart from the one above!)

Advertisements

6 thoughts on “What are the stories about?”

This is all really moving. The picture you shared along with your words give credit to how much love you feel for your granny. And you are spot on, though the view is gorgeous, your words don’t bring our attention to it but to the people standing in the foreground. Thank you for sharing, Sirius.

I’ve spent some time in Perth and Kinross- lovely, poignant story. I’m sure part of your gran’s spirit remains there. Thanks for popping by my Desert Dreams Blog. I am a storyteller too- my stories are on my main blog as well as my travels through Scotland and Ireland.

Thanks dune mouse – I’ll have to have a read of your travels. Although I grew up in Edinburgh I’ve lived most of my life in England so don’t actually know a lot of Scotland as well as I should – but am going to Orkney in a month, which I am now getting very excited about!